Sunday, January 25, 2015

Make a difference

The Kelly Tarlton bus picks visitors from Downtown.

When
I was growing up in my parents' home. I ate almost anything you can
imagine. As I grew older, many of those exotic things don't appeal to me
any more. Shark fin soup is one. I saw on documentaries, when fishermen
hacked off the shark fins and throw them overboard, sharks are unable
to swim and they drown.

I have been teaching Under the
sea with my juniors, and we made up a story that sharkie could be
friends with a Tangiwha aka a sea monster.

New
Zealand Forest and Bird is urging diners to boycott a popular Chinese
delicacy amid concerns over inhumane fishing practices.

Shark-fin
soup is a symbol of wealth and prestige in Chinese culture, selling for
as much as $300 a serve in some local restaurants.

But Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said targeting sharks for their fins was a "barbaric practice".

Sharks
in New Zealand waters can be finned as long as they are dead, but Mr
Hackwell said there was plenty of evidence that live finning took place.

"We know it's going on. We've been asking the Government for quite a while to do something."

While
the Government was set to review shark fishing regulations in 2013, the
public could do something now by avoiding restaurants that had shark
fin on the menu.

"People have power as consumers. We're the ones who buy the products," said Mr Hackwell.

Shark-finning is illegal in many countries including Britain, the United States and Australia.

The fins are the most valuable part of the animal. After they're removed, the shark is often thrown overboard.

Aucklander
James Lawson saw a group walk out of the popular Grand Harbour
Restaurant after a confrontation over the presence of shark fin on the
menu. Attempts to get comment from the Viaduct eatery yesterday were
unsuccessful.

"Finning is prohibited in Australia, the
USA, the EU, but not here," said Mr Lawson. "This is abhorrent. Is this
what we do in New Zealand?"

Another Auckland restaurant that sells the soup is Crystal Harbour. Its manager, Carlton Sui, said complaints were uncommon.

"I think it's just a real minority of people," said Mr Sui.

Shark
populations are rapidly declining worldwide on the back of the $1
billion fin industry and as a "by-catch" of targeting other fish.

A Department of Conservation source said New Zealand tuna fishermen caught up to two and a half times as many sharks as tuna.

Greenpeace
marine biologist Karli Thomas said: "A lot of these sharks are being
taken in fisheries targeting tuna, but the value of the shark fins means
they're a kind of target in themselves."